This is a discussion on The Definitive comparision: Punto 1.3 MJD VS I 20 1.4 CRDi VS Ritz 1.3 DDiS within Test-Drives & Initial Ownership Reports, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; great comprehensive review sid.
you have taken great pains to put this down.
A big thanx to you...

Don't take it the wrong way, but I think that your ratings scale is a bit skewed. What I mean is that while the punto is a great car (IMO the best of the bunch), but it certainly does NOT deserve a 9/10 rating.

I know I'm being an a** here, but 9/10 == Almost perfect car with no shortcomings whatsoever, let alone anything serious.

I'm not here to point out the merits or demerits of any car(enough has already been said), but IMO none of these deserves a 9/10 or even 8/10 rating. All of them have their own shortcomings (serious ones, at that).

(Disclaimer: this comparison is done keeping in mind the typical Indian car buyer's perception-conservatism rather than from an enthusiasts perspective.
Individual perceptions may vary. Be sure to judge your requirements and take a thorough test drives of any car that you intend to purchase because different people have different requirements.)

i just don't seem to agree with verdict though i might be wrong. I calculated the total scores for each car and the standings are

Fiat GP 150.5/190
Hyundai i20 160.5/190
Maruti Ritz 131.5/190

So according to these numbers i20 is the clear winner. It was mentioned in the beginning that the price is given secondary importance so will the overpricing of i20 weigh more than those extra 10 points ?

Please i mean no offense or disgrace to the author, its just that i am applying simple calculations to reach my result.

excellent review! As you have rightly pointed out in your disclaimer, perceptions of the winner might vary on the requirements of the customer, but, what is more important is that you have captured the attributes of the cars well. Thanks for that. In my opinion, this is the most comprehensive comparison on Tbhp ever.

@Sid:
Excellent pictorial and exhaustive review there. Appreciate the effort and time spent on it. Agree with the overall winner as I am pretty sure Fiat guys had no other choice but to price it very competitive and in the process dilute on some quality control/ design of some parts also while retaining th eoverall character.

Few points.

1) As D3mon says, the highest rating for many parameters should not have exceeded 8 as i feel we should have that 2 or 3 points for scope for improvement. The overall rating for the highest rated car also should not have gone beyond 8. It only takes away the scope for improvement for another car if it were to be launched later.That's my opinion though.

2) The fuel effciency part might not be entirely true for the i20 going by the certified rating. i20 maybe less or equal to punto.

3) Ride and handling from a common man's perspective might not mean so much as what you have mentioned and it would be more like how it rides in city than how it handles in highways.

Thats some real good work done. I think i20 would have been the winner if only they could price it right. Probably thats the reason behind the quality of plastics in GP and i20. But will that make that huge a difference? I'm wondering on what aspects did Hyundai send more and loose on the pricing and how did GP manage to reduce the cost and price!!!

Awesome work there man. The amount of pain you've taken shows in your posts. Hats off to you .

Coming to the Fiat engine, all the linea owners here have observed that the engine frees up pretty much after run-in is complete (2000-3000 kms). If that's the case with Punto as well, there won't be concerns about Punto being underpowered (to some extent at least).

I expected other members to point out the overall difference in points between the Punto and the i20, but I agree with Sid in the fact that the final price difference is high enough to offset whatever qualitative differences exist between the Punto and i20. In any purchase, no matter what you do, you cannot ignore the price difference. Sure you get what you pay for - with the Punto, lower interior quality and with the i20, far better interiors - but at the end of the day, you have to shell out the extra monies to buy the i20. If price was not a consideration, then the Jazz would win most battles easily.

Great review Sid, very very thorough and much more to-the-point than most car reviews I read today. The important part is that you took ONE stand - that of the typical Indian car-buyer - and not dilly-dally around with both an enthusiast and routine car buyers. Very nice.

However, I am not sure if the analysis about front and rear leg space is correct. In fact, i20 is supposed to have most cramped rear space (going by the measurements). There is lengthy and heated discussion on this topic in another thread.

Again, very good thread with lots of facts and figures! Individual users will have more weight for some points and less for some others. So the verdict may vary between individuals but nevertheless, very attempt to summarize the pros and cons of all three cars.